[In PROSOROV'S house. A sitting-room with pillars; behind is seen a large dining-room. It is midday, the sun is shining brightly outside. In the dining-room the table is being laid for lunch.]
[OLGA, in the regulation blue dress of a teacher at a girl's high school, is walking about correcting exercise books; MASHA, in a black dress, with a hat on her knees, sits and reads a book; IRINA, in white, stands about, with a thoughtful expression.]
OLGA. It's just a year since father died last May the fifth, on
your name-day, Irina. It was very cold then, and snowing. I thought
I would never survive it, and you were in a dead faint. And now a
year has gone by and we are already thinking about it without pain, and you are wearing a white dress and your face is happy. [Clock strikes twelve] And the clock struck just the same way then. [Pause] I remember that there was music at the funeral, and they fired a volley in the cemetery. He was a general in command of a brigade but there were few people present. Of course, it was raining then, raining hard, and snowing.
IRINA. Why think about it!
[BARON TUZENBACH, CHEBUTIKIN and SOLENI appear by the table in the dining-room, behind the pillars.]
OLGA. It's so warm today that we can keep the windows open, though
the birches are not yet in flower. Father was put in command of a
brigade, and he rode out of Moscow with us eleven years ago. I
remember perfectly that it was early in May and that everything in
Moscow was flowering then. It was warm too, everything was bathed
in sunshine. Eleven years have gone, and I remember everything as
if we rode out only yesterday. Oh, God! When I awoke this morning
and saw all the light and the spring, joy entered my heart, and I
longed passionately to go home.
CHEBUTIKIN. Will you take a bet on it?
TUZENBACH. Oh, nonsense.
[MASHA, lost in a reverie over her book, whistles softly.]
OLGA. Don't whistle, Masha. How can you! [Pause] I'm always having
headaches from having to go to the High School every day and then
teach till evening. Strange thoughts come to me, as if I were
already an old woman. And really, during these four years that I
have been working here, I have been feeling as if every day my
strength and youth have been squeezed out of me, drop by drop. And
only one desire grows and gains in strength ...
IRINA. To go away to Moscow. To sell the house, drop everything here, and go to Moscow ...
OLGA. Yes! To Moscow, and as soon as possible.
[CHEBUTIKIN and TUZENBACH laugh.]
IRINA. I expect Andrey will become a professor, but still, he won't
want to live here. Only poor Masha must go on living here.
OLGA. Masha can come to Moscow every year, for the whole summer.
[MASHA is whistling gently.]
IRINA. Everything will be arranged, please God. [Looks out of the window]
It's nice out today. I don't know why I'm so happy: I
remembered this morning that it was my name-day, and I suddenly
felt glad and remembered my childhood, when mother was still with
us. What beautiful thoughts I had, what thoughts!
OLGA. You're all radiance today, I've never seen you look so
lovely. And Masha is pretty, too. Andrey wouldn't be bad-looking, if he wasn't so stout; it does spoil his appearance. But I've grown old and very thin, I suppose it's because I get angry with the girls at school. Today I'm free. I'm at home. I haven't got a headache, and I feel younger than I was yesterday. I'm only twenty-eight. ... All's well, God is everywhere, but it seems to me that if only I were married and could stay at home all day, it would be even better. [Pause] I should love my husband.
TUZENBACH. [To SOLENI] I'm tired of listening to the rot you talk. [Entering the sitting-room] I forgot to say that Vershinin, our new lieutenant-colonel of artillery, is coming to see us to-day. [Sits down to the piano.]
OLGA. That's good. I'm glad.
IRINA. Is he old?
TUZENBACH. Oh, no. Forty or forty-five, at the very outside. [Plays softly]
He seems rather a good sort. He's certainly no fool, only he likes to hear himself speak.
IRINA. Is he interesting?